an e-mail from Susan, who/which said

Status
Not open for further replies.

joham

Key Member
Joined
Oct 30, 2007
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
China
Current Location
China
I got an e-mail from Susan, who/which said she was going abroad for sightseeing.

The given answer is 'which'. Does 'who' sound as good or even better to native speakers? And does 'go abroad for sightseeing' sound natural?

Thank you in advance.
 
Last edited:

mmasny

Key Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2009
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Polish
Home Country
Poland
Current Location
Poland
I got an e-mail from Susan, who/which said she was going abroad for sightseeing.

The given answer is 'which'. Does 'who' sound as well or even better to native speakers? And does 'go abroad for sightseeing' sound natural?

Thank you in advance.
I got an e-mail from Susan, who said she was going abroad for sightseeing.
It means:
I got an e-mail from Susan. Susan said she was going abroad for sightseeing.

I got an e-mail from Susan, which said she was going abroad for sightseeing.
It means:
I got an e-mail from Susan. The e-mail said she was going abroad for sightseeing.

I think that, in most natural contexts, they both convey (maybe almost) the same meaning (describing what the e-mail was about). But I'm not a native speaker, so you'd better wait for confirmation.
Good luck.
 

Raymott

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Australia
Current Location
Australia
I got an e-mail from Susan, who/which said she was going abroad for sightseeing.

The given answer is 'which'. Does 'who' sound as good or even better to native speakers? And does 'go abroad for sightseeing' sound natural?

Thank you in advance.
'Who' and 'which' are both correct, depending on whether you are referring to Susan or the e-mail. From the sentence in isolation, you can't tell which is correct.
 

billmcd

Key Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
You might hear both from native American-English speakers but grammatically "who said" would be correct because Susan "said" it and Emails can't "speak".
 

Raymott

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Australia
Current Location
Australia
You might hear both from native American-English speakers but grammatically "who said" would be correct because Susan "said" it and Emails can't "speak".
In that case, Susan didn't "say" it either, she "wrote" it.
It's common enough to say 'a letter says something' that, semantically, it's just as likely that the email 'said' something as it is that Susan 'said' something by email.
 

buggles

Key Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2007
Member Type
Other
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
I got an e-mail from Susan, who/which said she was going abroad for sightseeing.

The given answer is 'which'. Does 'who' sound as good or even better to native speakers? And does 'go abroad for sightseeing' sound natural?

Thank you in advance.

No argument with previous posters about who/which, but in answer to the second part of your question, "go abroad for sight seeing" doesn't really sound right. We'd be more likely to say, " go abroad to do some sightseeing".


buggles (not a teacher)
 

euncu

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2009
Member Type
Other
Native Language
Turkish
Home Country
Turkey
Current Location
Turkey
I guess, the emphasis here is to use "which" with a comma. So it possibly refers to the e-mail.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top